Crossmembers of this type are known from the state of the art. They are usually arranged in the front region of an engine compartment of a motor vehicle and serve for supporting the torsional forces introduced by the engine. This is intended to limit or absorb the tilting motion of the engine that is caused by the torsional forces under certain driving conditions.
A crossmember of this type is known, e.g., from DE 102 06 472 A1, wherein a crossmember with the approximate shape of a U in a side view is provided with a supporting bearing that is mounted on the upper side of the crossmember, i.e., in the region of the opening of the U-shape. The additional supporting bearing should only perform a support function once a defined clearance travel is exceeded, i.e., when a high torque threshold is exceeded. The additional supporting bearing is provided as a safety device for protecting the engine or transmission mountings from an overload. The supporting bearing receives a torque bracket fixed on the engine and a pin that protrudes in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The pin protrudes into a bushing mounted on the crossmember and surrounds the pin with a certain clearance such that an annular gap is formed between the pin and the bushing. This annular gap ensures the clearance travel for decoupling the pin from the bushing under normal loads. If more significant relative displacements between the engine and the crossmember occur, the pin comes in contact with the inner circumference of the bushing such that the supporting bearing performs a support function. However, the arrangement of the supporting bearing on the crossmember may lead to an undesirable deformation thereof when a force is introduced.
Other devices for supporting the torque of an internal combustion engine are also known from the state of the art, particularly DE 100 24 164 B4. In this publication, it is proposed to support a torque bracket consisting of a bracket arm and a brace that are connected by means of a bearing in such a way that one end of the bracket arm is connected to a cylinder head cover and/or a cam shaft housing by means of a rigid pivot bearing with a horizontal pivoting axis and the other end of the bracket arm is connected to the brace by means of a stationary elastic bearing with another horizontal pivoting axis, wherein the end of the brace is mounted on a structural member of the vehicle. This design is comparatively complicated and therefore associated with increased costs and installation expenditures.
DE 10 2005 013 528 A1 discloses a drive assembly mounting structure for mounting a drive assembly comprising an engine and a transmission in a motor vehicle. The assembly mounting structure comprises a pair of longitudinal supports that are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, a crossmember that connects these longitudinal supports and a rod provided for connecting the drive assembly and the crossmember. The crossmember has a convex configuration that is curved opposite to the direction of a load introduced via the rod. A rod mounting for the roll control rod is arranged underneath the crossmember and realized in the form of a bushing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,818 B2 discloses an engine mounting structure for a vehicle that is intended to absorb vibrations. To this end, a bushing for mounting the engine unit on the chassis is realized in a fluid-tight fashion. Two vertically arranged reinforcing elements used for connecting and holding the vertical reinforcing elements are also provided. They are mounted on the inner side of lateral chassis elements of the vehicle, namely at the locations at which the engine mountings are installed. The vertical reinforcing elements are arranged underneath mounting parts of the engine mountings. The mounting is realized with the aid of upper and lower flanges that are welded to the inner side of the lateral chassis element on the upper and lower side. A mounting on a crossmember of the vehicle is not realized in this case.
DE 101 17 589 A1 discloses a support arrangement for a drive assembly arranged within the front section of a vehicle. This publication describes a supporting frame that extends between the two longitudinal supports of the vehicle. The supporting frame should consist, in particular, of a high-strength material with a certain ductility that completely encloses the drive assembly.
DE 38 10 751 A1 discloses an embodiment of a crossmember arrangement, in which the crossmember is composed of a primary member and another shorter member. The primary member is realized in the form of a completely closed hollow profile that consists of two individual profiles connected by means of seaming or welding. The primary member accommodates the shorter member in its entirety. It is open in the region in which the connection with a drive assembly is produced such that the drive assembly can penetrate the hollow profile at this location.
The above-described known torsional support devices for engines are composed of various parts and therefore associated with high installation and manufacturing expenditures, as well as subject to the risk of twisting the crossmember if higher forces are introduced, namely despite the devices for increasing the rigidity that are provided in some of the described arrangements.
Consequently, the present invention is based on the objective problem of improving a crossmember for supporting and limiting torsional forces of an engine unit relative to a mounting frame, particularly a vehicle body, in such a way that the disadvantages of the prior art as well as the risk of deforming the crossmember, in particular, in the region in which the load is introduced into the crossmember are eliminated, wherein it should be simultaneously possible to adapt the crossmember, if applicable, to a restricted installation space and to limit the torque with the aid of the crossmember.